Quill-cleaner art.



J. S. LANIER.v

QUILL CLEANER ART.

APPLICATION-FILED APR. 10, 1913.

Patented July 11,-1916.

QUILL-CLEANER ART.

Specification of Letters Patent.

. Patented July 11, 1916.

Application filed April 10, 1913. Serial No. 760,259.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JAMES SMITH LANIER, a citizen of the United States,residing in the county of Chambers and State of Alabama, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in the Quill-Cleaner Art; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the in vention, such as will enable others skilled in the art towhich it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to improvements in the art of quill cleaning, andparticularly to means for removing waste yarn remaining on quills, andalso to the mode of removal thereof.

The object in view is the production of cheap and efficient means forquickly and automatically removing yarn from quills.

Vith this and further objects in View as will hereinafter in part bestated and in part become apparent, the invention comprises certainnovel constructions, combination and arrangements of parts and certainnovel steps of a process, as will be hereinafter specified and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing,Figure 1 is a view partly in side elevationand partly in section of an apparatus demonstrating the features of thepresent invention. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the spiral housing withthe chute and suction tube omitted. Figs. 3 and 4 are detail crosssectional views taken respectively on the planes indicated by lines 3-3and H of Fig. 1.

' Referring to the drawings by numerals, 1 indicates a funnel supportedin any suitable manner in position for discharging into a trough orguideway '2 which is inclined to form a chute for quills or bobbins, afew of which are indicated at 4, 4. The chute 2 extends to the spiralhousing 5 and communicates with the quill receiving slot 6 formed in thespiral portion of the housing and leading downwardly about the housing.The slot 6 terminates in communication with a discharge chute 7 throughwhich the quills 4 are adapted to be directed and to be al lowed to droptherefrom into any suitable receptacle disposed beneath the chute 7. Thehousing 5 is hollow throughout its length and at its lower end contractsabruptly, somewhat funnel-like, and discharges into a suction pipe 8which extends to a suction device or blower 9 of'any ordinary or wellknown type. i

In the length of the tube 8 is arranged the apparatus for preventingwaste yarn drawn from the quills from clogging the blower 9,

or otherwise interfering with the operation of the parts. This apparatusconsists of a transversely disposed chamberlO interposed in the lengthof pipe 8 and having locks 11 and 12. at its upper and lower portionsthrough which passes the endless cable 13 provided with brushes 14adapted to sweep across the protecting screen 15 stretched across theintake portion of the tube 8. The cable 13 may be in the form of asprocket chain or other suitable carrier sustained and driven byshaft-carried sprockets or pulleys and supplied with power from anyappropriate source not illustrated. Each lock 11, 12 is of the usual airlock type, such as are commonly employed in caisson constructions, thelock 11 being provided with spring-closed, inwardly opening doors 16,16,and the lock 12 being provided with springclosed outwardly opening doors17, 17 each of the doors 16 and 17 being apertured and slotted foraccommodating the cable 13.

In operation, the quills are dropped into the funnel 1, either manuallyor otherwise,

so that their'small or tapered ends extend downwardly, and are deliveredfrom the funnel by gravity in rapid succession endwise into chute 2,down which they slide until they enter the slot 6. In practice, it ispreferable to supply a sufficient quantity of quills to the funnel 1 toinsure sufliciently rapid delivery to the chute 2 for having the quillsmove along in edge contact with respect totheir heads, the headsengaging the side walls of the chute while descending the chute andengaging the upper edge portions of the housing 5 while 'descendingthesame along the slot 6. The incline of suchedges is suflicient toinsuretravelby gravity on the part of the several quills throughout the lengthof the slot 6, 3

so that they will be successively discharged from the chute 7. Duringsuch travel they ference in fact.

the chamber 10 accompanied by a minimum admission of air by virtue ofthe employment of the locks 11 and 12.

I have demonstrated in practice the efliciency of the apparatus and theeffectiveness of this mode or method of cleaning quills. I am, ofcourse, aware of attempts to clean quills by mechanical strippers but ofthose with which I am familiar none of such have 3 been successful instripping all of the quills supplied to the machine, and it has,therefore, been found necessary in operating such mechanical strippersto assort the clean quills from the uncleaned ones and to place thelatter again in the hopper of the machine for further cleaning. With thepresent apparatus and mode of quill cleaning this necessity is entirelyobviated, as I find that usually during a very short portion of thefirst part of the travel of the quills down the slot 6 the yarn isentirely removed. Even when the yarn is in most tangled condition it isfound that the suction loosens and sufiiciently disentangles the yarn tostart the free end portion and the continued suction rapidly unwinds thebalance.

While I have described in detail a specific structure for carrying outthe present improved mode of removing yarn from quills, it is obviousthat the mode may be carried out without limitation to apparatus and byapparatus of any of varying types. It will be further noted that theremoval of the yarn under the sucking action of the fan or blower isincident to a resultant difference in atmospheric pressure wherebycurrents of air are caused to flow past the yarn, so that while it isproper to say that the yarn is sucked off, it is also quite as accuratea statement to say that the yarn is blown. off, the difference beingthat of the points of observation and represents no dif- Thus regardlessof the location of the fan or other apparatus which produces thedifference in atmospheric pressure, the resultant cleansing blast is thesame and is effective incident to the flow of atmosphere or other fluidlongitudinally of the respective quill or bobbin. It will be observedthat it is immaterial whether the blast be of air or other fluid, and,therefore, the term air as employed in the appended claims is to beinterpreted in a broad sense inclusive of any possible substitute fluid.The terms-quill and bobbin are herein used as synonomous, and areemployed to designate a yarn carrier of any kind where waste is left onthecarrier and must be cleaned therefrom before the carrier can bereused, or where it is desirable to recover the waste for the value ofthe yarn itself.

As will be obvious from Fig. 1, the action of the air blast or currentpassing the waste yarn of each bobbin or quill is to segregate a strandand unwind the same so that the waste yarn as discharged is in acondition incident to its removal from the bobbins in the form ofsegregated strands, which is a condition rendering the resultant wasteproduct of yarn far superior for commercial purposes than is ordinarywaste yarn removed by hand or otherwise from bobbins but left in theform of a bunch or condensed, tangled mass.

What I claim is 1. In a quill cleaner, the combination with a housingproportioned to receive a plurality of quills, and means for directing acleansing blast through the housing in contact with all quills extendingtherein.

2. In the art of quill cleaning causing traveling of a quill laterallyinto a line of blast with the quill disposed substantiallylongitudinally of the line of blast for subjecting waste yarn on thequill to the action of the blast.

3. In the art of quill cleaning, moving a series of juXta-posed quillslaterally into a line of blast and maintaining said quills positionedlongitudinally of the line of blast while subjecting waste yarn thereonto the action of the blast.

4. In the art of quill cleaning, subjecting Waste yarn on a quill to acleansing blast adapted to remove yarn from the quill, and causing thequill to travel laterally While yarn on the quill is subjected to theblast.

5. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for creating a cleansingolast, and means for directing a quill laterally into the blast with thequill disposed longitudinally of the blast.

6. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for creating a cleansingblast, and means for directing a plurality of juxtaposed quillslaterally into the blast while the quills are sustained substantiallylongitudinally of the blast.

7. In a quill cleaner, pneumatic suction means, and means for placing aquill in the path of the suction for removing waste yarn from the quill.

8. In a quill cleaner, the combination of pneumatic. suction means, andmeans for directing a' quill along a path while sub jected to thesuction means.

9. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for creating a cleansingblast and means for directing a quill into the blast for removing wasteyarn therefrom.

10. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for creating acleansing blast and means for directing a quill into the blast with thequill disposed substantially longitudinally with respect to. the blastfor causing the blast to act directly on the quill eX- I means fordirecting a quill through the blast for causing the blast to remove thewaste yarn from the quill.

12. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for directing acleansing blast in con tact with waste yarn on a quill, and means forcausing the quill to move relative to the blast.

13. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for directing acleansing blast in contact with waste yarn on a quill, and means forcausing relative movement of the quill and blast with respect to eachother.

14:. In a quill cleaner, the combination of pneumatic suction means, andmeans for moving a quill through the line of suction for removing wasteyarn from the quill.

15. In a quill cleaner, the combination of pneumatic suction means, andmeans for directing a quill through the line of suction with the quilldisposed alined with such line of suction for removing waste yarn fromthe quill.

16. In a quill cleaner, the combination of a slotted housing, and meansfor creating a partial vacuum in the housing, the slot of the housingbeing adapted to laterally admit quills for removing waste yarntherefrom.

17. In a quill cleaner, the combination of a slotted housing, and meansfor creating a partial vacuum in the housing, the slot being adapted toreceive the shank of a quill while the head of the quill is supported bythe material of the housing.

18. In a quill cleaner, the combination of a suction device, means forpresenting a quill to the action of the suction device for removingwaste yarn from the quill, and means for moving the yarn sucked from thequill out of the path of the suction.

19. In a quill cleaner, the combination of a suction device, means forpresenting a quill to the action of the suction device for removingwaste yarn from the quill, a screen disposed between the suction deviceand the quill, and means for cleaning the screen.

20. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for removing waste yarnfrom a quill by the action of an air blast operating directly on theyarn being removed, and means for automatically feeding quills into theline of the blast.

21. In a quill cleaner, the combination of pneumatic means for removingwaste yarn from a quill, and means for automatically feeding a quill tosaid yarn removing means.

22. In a quill cleaner, the combination of pneumatic means for cleaningwaste yarn from quills, and means for automatically feeding quillssuccessively to the yarn cleaning means.

23. In a quill cleaner, the combination of means for producing acleansing blast, and automatic means for feeding and positioning a quilllongitudinally with respect to the blast for enabling the blast toremove waste yarn from the quill.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES SMITH LANIER.

Witnesses:

L. G. NORMAN, S. M. FULLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, byaddressing" the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

